The Sultan
The Sultan is one of AI opponent that appears in Stronghold Crusader. Appearance He has an unusually large nose, with a thick brown mustache below it. He has a cheerful face, decorated by a white turban showing him as a typical Arabian lord. He wears standard chain armor, in addition to lamellar armor on the chest and two brown belts across his shoulders. Personality The Sultan is unique in being more like a poet than a lord, and in much preferring the pen over the sword. His speech is very poetic, and his face is very expressive as though he were an actor. He is often happy, and only becomes saddened when he is attacked or failed in an attack of his own. His voice, however, always remains calm. He is a kind person to his people, to the point that his army is willing to die protecting their lord, indicated by their usual army bonus. He's also kind to his allies, and never speaks rashly to his enemies. He sometimes will agree attack an enemy or defend the player when requested to, although he often declines as he can struggle to build up an attack force. He also may give some goods to the player, but when he declines it is always for reasons of practicality, as the Sultan has such a poor economy. He has a keen interest in astronomy, often observing the stars and the moon. He also likes feasting, much like the Pig does (although unlike him, he shares the food among his men). This makes the Sultan's lack of farms in the game somewhat unusual. He often does not seem angry when taunting an enemy, he often has a very deep masculine Arabic accent that slurs and gets even deeper when he talks. Castles and Strategies The Sultan is a very easy-going lord, prioritizing troop morale and his folk's well-being before everything else. His armies and castles are very poorly organized, making him an easy opponent to dismantle. The Sultan relies entirely on wood and stone production. He builds dozens of woodcutters to quickly deforest entire regions and make lots of profit from overproducing wood planks, as well as he erects some quarries to build his humble castle. He has no food production - he buys in his granary stocks from the surplus gold he makes and instead, he receives additional gold from taxing, as he builds an abundance of good things. Castles of the Sultan are circular, with thick crenelated walls and periodic lookout towers with a small gatehouse in the perimeter. He houses slingers and regularly sends them out to patrol around the castle, as well as he sends batallions of Arabian swordsmen and slingers to protect his quarries. A few fire throwers protect the keep from close range. The Sultan's attacks are infrequent, but are able to pack a punch to an unprepared player. He sends Arabian bowmen and Arabian swordsmen to attack without siege equipment support. This force is really ineffective on its own when encountering a settlement entrenched by moat, as it lacks any moat-digger units (in which case the force may get stuck outside waiting). Nonetheless, the Sultan also likes to send in hordes of slingers to kill off peasants and oxen. For more details, read here: The Sultan/Strategies Dealing with For tips on how to beat see: The Sultan/Counter-strategies Quotes For the quotes of see: /Quotes Trivia *He is possibly the weakest lord in the entire game, being on a level with the Rat. The in-game blurb about him reveals, in part: "...Preferring feasting to the humdrum matters of his castle." *If the player uses only gatehouses (with drawbridges) and moat for surrounding the keep, the Sultan will be unable to attack, since he lacks moat digging units. His units will be stalled forever and need to be killed before the Sultan may prepare for another (still not functioning) army. Category:Characters